by Linda Mooney
Not waiting for the others to agree or disagree with him, the big man hefted his blaster and took a cautious step onto the metal floor. Guardedly, he placed both feet onto the plating, then bounced a little on his toes. “Seems sturdy enough.” He flashed them a thumbs-up, turned, and took another step.
The plating swung vertically, and Fullgrath dropped down through the floor with a cry of surprise. Before everyone could grasp what had happened, the sheet of metal swung back and settled into its original horizontal position. Kelen stared in horror as the edges sealed themselves, once more making the floor appear to be one smooth and seamless sheet.
Chapter 11
Beneath
As they stared at where Fullgrath had disappeared beneath the metal surface, Kleesod launched himself off the rock platform. He belly-flopped onto the flooring, arms and legs spread-eagle, and landed with a hard thump. For several long seconds they waited for him to vanish, but he remained unmoving.
“Why didn’t he drop?” Kelen asked.
Mellori crouched, tilting his head to examine the surface. “Not sure, but I think his weight is too evenly distributed. Jules?” He look over at the ex-navigator. “You were recording, weren’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Let me see the footage of Fullgrath going down.”
“Hold on.” Jules made a few adjustments and turned the tablet around. The screen replayed the incident one frame at a time.
“Hold it! There!” The engineer stared at the image, then looked over where Kleesod remained immobile. Kelen started to ask what he’d noticed, when the man rushed to the rim of the platform. Bending over, Mellori pushed on the edge of the metal. He applied more pressure until the section tilted, then shone his tube light into the recess.
“Just as I thought. This floor is the roof of an underground cavern. It looks like a three to four meter drop.” He checked the Seneecian who hadn’t moved. “Shift your weight and it should allow you to slide down. Keep your knees soft when you land on your feet. It shouldn’t be a hard fall. Stay where you land. We’ll join you shortly.”
Kleesod nodded. As he leaned to his left, the plating underneath his abdomen began to angle downward. He slid off, and the floor reset itself.
Mellori pointed where the Seneecian disappeared. “Our turn. Let’s go.”
“I will go next to catch you,” Massapa volunteered. Sitting on the edge, he pushed on the floor until it opened and silently dropped from sight.
“Kelen, you go next,” Kyber instructed. “Tell him Dox will follow so he can catch him.”
“Okay.”
Falling forward was like taking a plunge into the unknown. Her heart leaped into her throat as she launched herself off the platform. She saw the trap door-like opening rise in front of her face, but instead of being swallowed in darkness, a pair of strong hands caught her mid-thigh and lowered her to the ground.
Kelen gasped at the sight of the person who’d caught her. “Fullgrath!” Throwing her arms around the man, she gave him a big hug.
The man chuckled and moved her to the side. “Stay close.”
“Dox is next,” she hurried to inform them.
Kleesod braced himself. A moment later, the young man slid into view. The Seneecian deftly caught him, then set him on the ground next to Kelen. One at a time, each person joined the group. Tojun remained above to drop their bundles of supplies, coming down when he finished.
While everyone relocated to the lower section, Kelen studied this new area. The exact stone columns, the interlocking maze-like passageways, the translucent walls of the blocky compartments scattered within—all definitely appeared to be manmade.
Kyber came up behind her. “It looks like a small city.”
She started. He was right. That’s the word she’d been looking for. A city, with streets and buildings. Except the roof of every building and the sky above the streets was the same slab of metal plates rising above them.
“Who lives here?” Jules softly asked.
“Is it deserted?” Kyber added.
Mellori moved ahead of them and stopped in front of one of the columns which helped support the metal ceiling. Kelen saw him run his hand up and down the stone obelisk, then unexpectedly stop. The engineer glanced at Kyber.
“You need to check this out.”
Curious, she walked over with Kyber to see what Mellori was pointing to. Kyber bent down to stare at the stone pillar, when Massapa let out a low growl of warning. Kelen glanced up to see the other Seneecians in a defensive crouch. The Terrans stood behind them. All were staring to their right.
Kyber straightened, and she noticed the ruff on his back rise as he lifted the edges of his mouth in a silent snarl. He reached down to push her behind him. “Do not move,” he softly ordered her.
Something moved in the distance. There was a faint scuffling noise, followed by an odd chittering or clicking sound. Kelen felt the hairs rise on her head.
“Clickers?”
She glanced around, looking for a way out or someplace where they could take refuge, but the place was maze-like, without any sort of path to beckon them or a doorway to duck through.
“I don’t think this place is as deserted as we thought it was,” Jules remarked.
“Uhh, guys? I think we got company,” Fullgrath announced nervously, his voice rising as he leveled his blaster.
She eyeballed the distance between them and the rest of the group. It had to be eight or nine meters at the most. Not a lot of space, but they couldn’t risk making a mad dash to rejoin them. Not until they knew what was approaching. “We need to regather,” she whispered.
Kyber motioned for her to remain quiet.
Now the sound of something moving seemed to be coming from all around them. Kyber sniffed the air and a low rumble came from his throat. “It is Hoov,” he finally murmured. “But not Hoov.”
“What do you mean?” Mellori asked, his voice barely audible.
“I smell many of those creatures like him. They are getting closer.”
“Any idea how many?”
The Seneecian gave a single shake of his head and stepped to the side, wedging Kelen between him and the pillar. She readied her blaster.
“Is Hoov with them?”
“I cannot tell.”
They waited as the sound drew closer, but this time it appeared to be coming from all around them. Kelen whirled to her left as Kyber remained focused on their right. Mellori glanced upward.
“People, I think we’ve inadvertently landed smack in the middle of their nest.”
“There!” Kleesod called out and pointed at the darkness. “I see shadows!”
Everyone pivoted in the direction he indicated when the ceiling brightened, becoming transparent and flooding the interior below with pale lilac-colored light. Kelen covered her eyes to help them adjust to the sudden brilliance. When she removed her hand, she found herself staring at more than a dozen mantis-type creatures standing less than a ten meters away.
Chapter 12
Ganj
“Nobody move and nobody shoot,” Sandow calmly stated. “Make no overt or threatening gestures. Let’s see what they’ll do first.”
The creatures remained where they stood, watching the intruders. Waiting, like Kelen and the others, to see who would make the next move. That who was Kyber.
The Seneecian slowly straightened to his full height and faced them. “Hoov. Hoov!” He took a step toward the group of creatures, keeping his hands open and away from his body to show he was unarmed. “Hoov!”
The creatures turned to each other. They clicked and gestured to each other, and showed signs of what Kelen would have interpreted as agitation, but they remained at a distance from the newcomers.
“Ganj!” Kyber tried again. “Hoov!”
The creatures settled back into a waiting posture.
“It’s a stalemate,” Mellori murmured.
“Yeah, but for how long?” Kelen replied.
Presently, the cre
atures continued conversing between them. The wait stretched to several minutes as Kelen and the rest remained as still as possible.
The standing was starting to take its effect on her. Unable to sit, Kelen leaned against the pillar and clutched her abdomen. The cramping returned, and she felt a warmth spread between her legs. She tried to hide her discomfort, but Kyber must have sensed her pain. He backed up and placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Kelen?”
She shook her head. “I’ll be fine.” She managed a weak smile and fished the last capsule from her breast pocket, popping it in her mouth.
Kyber’s nostrils flared and he glanced over at the creatures. It was then she realized the creatures were staring in her direction, their heads bobbing as they shuffled on the ends of their appendages.
“Do you think they smell the blood?” she whispered to where only Kyber could hear. He didn’t reply, but she could tell he was also aware of the things’ scrutiny.
“Hey, Kyber?” Fullgrath called out to them. “Do you think they understand we want ‘em to contact Hoov?”
“We can only hope they eventually realize that,” Kyber replied.
“Hard to believe these things are the dominant intelligent species on this planet,” Fullgrath threw out.
Kleesod spoke up. “It is not their intelligence which prevents us from communicating. It is the ability to converse and relay information that is hindering us.”
“Wouldn’t it be nice if all of those things had on one of those blue stone necklaces?” Sandow remarked. “Or if we had our own translator.”
“If we had one of our space suits we ditched at the other temple, we would,” Jules pointed out.
“Oh, but we have the next best thing. Hey, Dox?” Mellori slowly moved to the other side of the pillar. “Dox, can you build a translator we can use?”
“Can try.”
“How quickly can you do it?”
When he didn’t get a response, Mellori asked again. “Dox? How fast can you make one?”
“He is working on it,” Kleesod informed them.
“We’re at a standstill,” Mellori said loud enough for the others to hear. “They’re as curious and as apprehensive about us as we are about them.”
“Which might mean they’re peace loving,” Kelen remarked, unaware she’d spoken her thoughts aloud. Mellori tossed her a confused look, so she pressed the issue. “Put yourselves in their shoes. We’re the invaders. We look nothing like them. They don’t know if we intend them any harm, or if—”
She was interrupted when the creatures suddenly became agitated once more. Their clicking grew faster and louder, and they started milling about. Yet they remained huddled over on the far end of the area, showing neither aggression nor the willingness to make further contact. Inevitably, they parted, allowing another of their kind to push through the crowd. Kelen recognized the creature only by the glowing necklace it wore.
Hoov stared at them for several seconds, then waved an appendage at them. “Come.” It turned to its right and started down the corridor, heading directly for Kelen, Kyber, and Mellori. The thing passed them without a glance and continued on at a casual, unhurried pace.
Kelen noticed the other creatures remained where they stood. So did Kyber. He waved at the rest of their own group. “Let us follow.”
Kleesod hoisted Dox into his arms as Jules and the others gathered up their bundles and hurried to catch up. Kelen noticed the little man digging through the bundle he had perched on top of his belly as he tried to concoct something that would reasonably work as a translation device.
They kept close behind Hoov, who continued going straight down the corridor. Above their heads, the metal plates suddenly tilted all at once, and the lower chambers glowed from the influx of light pouring over them.
“Well, that explains a lot,” Mellori muttered without further explanation.
Kelen bit her tongue and kept close behind Kyber, who made sure she was safely positioned between him and the ex-engineer. Every so often she would check behind them to see if the rest of Hoov’s people were also tagging along. They were, but at a distance.
The creature finally paused in front of one of the opaque violet panels. It took one look back at them, then walked through the panel as if it didn’t exist.
Fullgrath gave a bark of laughter. “Why do I get the feeling there isn’t a single solid door on this planet?”
“You conveniently forgot about the doors to the chambers to the baths at the other part of the world,” Tojun reminded him. Kelen glanced at the Seneecian, who wore that stoic expression she’d come to expect from Kyber whenever he jested with her. She waggled her eyebrows at Fullgrath, who gave a grunt but didn’t respond.
She stepped through the purple wall to find they were being ushered inside a room. A six-sided room. The floor was the same rocky ground as outside, but the ceiling high overhead consisted of those metal plates, now open to let lavender sunshine inside. The walls appeared solid and were covered in a textured pattern. Mellori walked up to one of them and experimentally touched it. Kelen wondered if he thought his hand would go through it, but the structure was solid. She looked at the doorway behind her and noticed it was smooth, not textured, and she got the connection. So that’s how they know where to walk in. She made a mental note to mention it to the others when they had the time.
Hoov stopped in one corner and sat. None of the other creatures entered to join them. Kelen dropped to the ground next to Kyber to wait for what would happen next.
Hoov pointed to the floor. “You. Here.”
“Is this your home? Your village?” Fullgrath ventured.
“Home,” the creature answered and cocked its triangular-shaped head to one side. “Ice.”
“Yeah. We survived the quake, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Hoov, why is everything purple?” Kelen ventured to ask.
The creature swiveled its thin stalk of a neck to peer over at where she sat. “Veek.”
“Veek? Is that what you call this color? Veek?”
“Veek. Home.” Rising to stand, Hoov again pointed to the floor. “Home.” Without saying another word, the creature walked around them and exited through the doorway, leaving them alone.
Sandow sighed. “I think it just told us this is where we’re staying.”
“All of us? In this little room?” Jules challenged, incredulous. “For how long?”
A faint whining sound caught their attention and they looked over at where Mellori still stood by the wall. Except a portion of the wall had opened like a drawer, nearly level with his nose.
“I had a hunch this place might have similar feeding mechanisms in place, like there were over at the nonagon,” he explained. “Except, instead of glowing glyphs, you have to read the glyph that’s etched in the wall.” He peered inside the open box. “Empty.” He gave the front of the drawer a little push and the box slid back into its recess with a soft whirr.
“How did you know it would be that high off the ground?” Fullgrath asked.
“For the same reason the roof is as high above our heads as it is,” Kleesod noted. “To accommodate those things.”
Kelen watched in fascination as Dox continued working on making a translating device, when Sandow voiced, “I wonder how long they plan to keep us here?”
“I want to know what they plan to do with us,” Tojun interjected.
“Well, it can’t be pleasant,” Mellori replied.
Fullgrath glowered at the engineer. “What makes you say that?”
Kyber motioned behind him. “That pillar outside? The one Mellori wanted me to look at? It has another Adajuss inscription on it.”
“What does it say?” Kelen asked, anticipating the worst. She was answered by the look of fear that briefly crossed her husband’s face before he answered.
“One word. Escape.”
Chapter 13
Warning
While they sat and rested, Mellori continued to investi
gate the wall. Kelen would sometimes watch him, and sometimes she would watch Dox. It was rare anyone got to watch the young man when he was in the midst of any creative effort. She was engrossed in seeing how he finagled one of the pieces he’d originally intended to be a communications device when Mellori laughed aloud.
“Jackpot!” One of the small textured panels had slid open, extending outward approximately nine centimeters or so like a narrow drawer. Mellori reached inside, lifted out a bowl, and sniffed its contents. Going over to Sandow, he held it out to the doctor. “It looks weird and it’s warm, but is it edible, Doc?”
Pulling out his scanner, the physician checked the contents and smiled. “I can’t vouch for the taste, but it appears to be edible. Some carbs, a little calcium, but mostly protein.”
“Think we can get more than three bowls of that stuff?” Jules asked.
Mellori walked back over to the drawer, closed it, then pressed on it again. After two separate tries, two additional bowls were ejected, then no more.
Sandow passed the bowl over to Kelen and turned back to the engineer. “Check to see if there are any more drawers. If this place also follows that three rule, there should be two more food dispensers. If we can get nine servings, that’ll hold us until it cycles through and allows us to get more.”
Mellori continued to touch the panels, hoping to find another one. Massapa got up and went over to help press the hexagon-shaped marks on the wall.
The bowl felt good where it rested in her lap and against her abdomen. Using a finger, she dipped it in the brownish mass and put it in her mouth. Immediately, she winced at the bitterness.
“Let me guess. Needs salt?” Fullgrath teased.
“It needs something,” she admitted and continued scooping it into her mouth, swallowing the porridge-like consistency without chewing. She debated holding her nose to offset the taste, but decided she’d be better off if she hurried to finish it instead.
Kelen glanced upward and remembered what she’d planned to tell them. “Has anyone else noticed that the wall containing the doorway doesn’t have a textured surface?”